Dethroned
by Stone Cold Mox
Summary: Casey's spent her career in the lap of the Authority, but things are about to change. How is she supposed to get along with The Hounds of Justice? Will one of them manage to sweep her off her feet? Rated M for language.
1. Chapter 1

_So this is my first time posting on this site, and first time posting anything wrestling story, so be kind, but feedback is always welcome and appreciated. I've got a rough outline for this, but nothing set in stone. Stay tuned_

 _Theres supposed to be a time skip in there, but it literally wont let me put anything in so pardon me if it looks sloppy_

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"Stay close." Casey all but ordered Kane as she waited at the curtain for her music to hit, her shiny new belt slung over her shoulder. She smiled to herself; The Intercontinental Title belt was finally where it belonged. After months of feuding with the youngest Rhodes, it was finally hers.

Kane grunted his reply, not really caring what she said. It didn't matter to him what she said; he took his orders from the Authority and right now his orders were to watch her and keep her out of trouble, not to do whatever she wanted him to. He would follow her around, but he'd be damned if he was going to let some little princess push him around.

Casey's music rang through the arena and her smile turned into a grin. She strode through the curtain and down the ramp, confident as always, Kane a few steps behind her as she swayed gracefully down to the ring.

The house was packed, it was the Raw after a pay per view, so fans were eager to be a part of all the new drama, and to take a look at their new champions. Casey was happy to oblige.

"Good evening WWE universe. It is my pleasure to address you tonight as the new WWE Intercontinental Champion. I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported me and continue to support me and while I'm happy to have this title, it is just a stepping stone to the glory that awaits me when I accomplish my takeover of the WWE. I assure you, fans and disbelievers alike, This is only the beginning of Casey." With that, She dropped the microphone, sure that some sound guy or stage hand would pick it up, and headed back up the runway, unaware of the trouble she had just caused herself.

 _Later that evening_

"I want a rematch. Last night was bullshit and you know it, Hunter. That title should be mine; it doesn't belong to that little brat." Cody Rhodes all but yelled into his microphone as he stood in the ring with the Authority. He had stomped his way out to the ring, demanding to speak to Hunter and to get a rematch.

Hunter help up his hand, signalling that had heard enough from the second generation wrestler. He brought his own microphone slowly to his lips, seeming unworried about the situation at hand. "Casey, come out here." he ordered calmly. With Cody running his mouth as he had just been, he knew she would be eagerly waiting at the curtain.

Sure enough, in no more than a few moments, her music was blaring and she was striding down the ramp, a sour look on her face. She snatched the microphone from the stage hand as she passed him and hurriedly slid into the ring.

"Are you really going to let him bully you into giving him a match tonight? He lost last night and now he's out here whining. I already proved that I'm better than him, this is ridiculous." She paid no mind to her coworker and rather turned her attention to the Authority.

"Remember who the boss is here, Casey." Hunter warned, his anger rising at her insolence. "If I want to make a match, I'll make a match. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were scared. Don't think you can beat Rhodes?"

"Of course I can beat him! I beat him fair and square last night, just like him going to beat everybody else in this company until I'm at the tippy top, calling the shots." Casey snapped at his words, not being able to stop herself from getting in his face. He had struck a nerve and she knew it.

"Is that so?" Hunter asked, an amused smirk plastered on his face. He shot a knowing look towards his wife, who broke into a grin before turning her attention to Kane.

"Kane." Was all she said before Casey felt her hulking presence beside her shift. Something was wrong, but she didn't have time to react before a monstrous hand wrapped around her throat and she was hoisted into the air. She slammed against the canvas harder than she was prepared for and was understandably stunned. For a few seconds everything went black. The crowd, equally as shocked, was all but silent as she struggled to regain herself.

Gasping for air, clutching her throat with her left hand, her right one propping her up, Casey found Hunter standing over her, looking down with stern eyes. "Remember your place." He boomed. "Stand down and maybe we'll let you keep your title."

Casey had never been on this side of The Authority's wrath. Since her debut, she had had a cushioned career, always favored by those in charge because she never raised to much of a fuss. Not only was she surprised at herself and by this this turn of events, but she was also outraged. There was no way in hell she was going to let them treat her like this. "Fuck you." She choked out, using the turnbuckle to get to her feet, a hand still at her throat.

Hunter raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised at her defiance. "Is that how it's going to be? Have it your way. You have a match tonight. Your title will be on the line, but you won't be facing Rhodes." Sensing Cody's outrage, Hunter once again raised his hand to silence him. "You'll be fighting the SHIELD. 3 on 1 handicap. If you lose, you'll be stripped of your title and it will be given back to Cody Rhodes, because you're obviously unfit to hold it. And since The Authority has no use for an ungrateful brat, if you fail to defend your title, you will from that point forward be managing the Shield." Hunter paused to allow for the loud reaction from the crowd. "Remember what happens when you disobey orders."

Casey could feel her temper bubbling as Hunter explained the details of the match. They knew there was no way she could beat the Shield by herself. There wasn't a man on the roster that could do that. They knew being their manager meant she wouldn't get to wrestle, at least not much. They were trying to get rid of her and she couldn't let that happen.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: So I put off writing this for like months then pumped it out in three days. I actually wrote the majority of Chapter 3 before I even started this chapter, so expect that soon :) I won't do the whole "I need this many reviews before I release it" thing but any feedback would be much appreciated. At least half of this was written while completely hungover and I don't have a beta so my apologies for any mix-ups._

 _Also thank you to caz21 for the review and thank you to everyone who favorited and followed._

 **CHAPTER 2**

Casey sat on the lighting box, her legs swinging back and forth. She had already changed into her ring gear and was now just waiting for her cue to get to the guerrilla position. Her match would be beginning soon, the match that would decide her fate in the company.

She had spent the last hour trying to find a way out of her current situation, some way to either get out of the match or actually beat the Shield. She wasn't a weak girl, she could hold her own against most of the men on the roster, at least those is the lower weight class, but all three Shield boys were massive and though she thought she might be able to take one of them on their own, there was no way she would stand a chance against all three of them. Her only hope was that the Shield didn't want her as a manager and purposely threw the match. But she had a feeling they wouldn't be willing to give up their winning streak over the likes of her.

So she was doomed. She looked down at the title belt she held in her lap; It would surely be back in the hands of Cody Rhodes by the end of the night. Things seemed glum but there was no way she would go down without a fight. If she couldn't beat The Shield and retain her title, she was going to do her best to give them the fight of their lives.

"Casey, Guerrilla." A stagehand informed her, obviously rushed, clutching his clipboard. Somehow, among all the rush and confusion that was backstage during showtime, the stagehands always knew where to find the talent when they were needed.

Casey hopped down from her perch and made her way down the dark hallway she had been mentally preparing herself in. Usually, Kane would be waiting for her at the ready position, but Casey had a feeling he would be watching from the Authority office tonight. This would be the first time in a long time that she would be going out by herself. "You ready?" The sound tech asked her as she stood patiently at the curtain, tapping her foot. A nod was all that was needed from her before her music hit. (A/N: Runnin' by Noahplause if anyone cares)

Striding down the ramp, Casey didn't let her worry appear on her face. If this had been a regular match or an appearance, she would be putting out 'I'm better than you' vibes and carrying herself as if she owned the world and tonight was no different. She was fully aware that her world was about to come crashing down around her, but here was no way she was giving Hunter and The Authority the satisfaction of seeing how nervous and upset she was.

When she reached the ring, she took her belt off and took a moment to flaunt it around, enjoying it while she could, well aware she would soon be letting go of it. She all but clutched it as her opponents began their intro.

 _Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta_

 _Shield_

Casey didn't even glance in their direction as they made their way to the ring. She didn't have to watch them to know what they were doing. They did their usual intimidating, stoney-faced walk through the crowd, followed by their barricade hop; Casey silently mused to herself that the barricades were absolutely too high for her gracefully scale on her own, no matter how easy Seth Rollins made it look.

It wasn't until they entered the ring that Casey spared a glance at them. Though they had worked for the same company for quite awhile, Casey had never really had the chance to interact with The Shield. Yes, she had seem them around backstage, and at the occasional get together, she had actually been formally introduced to them upon their arrival in the WWE, but as for actually knowing them, she didn't know more than what she saw during shows.

Roman was the first one to make eye contact with her, though it didn't seem to be a particularly friendly glance. Casey figured it was kind of hard to come off as friendly when she was putting out total bitch vibes. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, keeping her eyes trained on the big Samoan. Though all the Shield boys were larger than her, significantly so, Casey figured Roman would be able to do the most damage to her, given the size difference. If she wanted to stand any chance against The Shield, she would have to do her best to stay away from him.

She was shaken from her thoughts by Lillian Garcia introducing herself and her challengers. As Casey was introduced, she did a lap around the ring, her title held high above her head. As she passed in front of the trio, she felt their stares boring into her. As she turned briefly, she met eyes with none other than Dean Ambrose himself. The intensity of his stare made her falter in her step briefly before she reluctantly gave up her title to the referee, knowing full well it would be the last time it would be in her hands, at least for awhile. She stepped back as her opponents were introduced, leaning in her corner.

The three of them put their fists in together as Lillian finished up their intro. Casey watched them closely, wondering who they were going to put in first. After a quick discussion between the three of them, Dean and Seth resigned to their positions outside of the ring; just her luck.

Roman stalked his way to the center of the ring, waiting for the bell whilst Casey remained in her corner. This was the worst case scenario and there was no way she was going to offer herself up to him on a silver platter.

The bell rang and she took a couple of steps towards her opponent, locking eyes with him. His look had softened slightly and he spoke to her, only loud enough for himself and her to hear. "Nothing personal, babygirl. Just let me pin you and we can get this over with." Though he didn't mean his words to sound as belittling as they came out, Casey took immediate offense to them and her plan of keeping her distance went right out the door. She launched herself at the second generation wrestler, taking him by surprise, and the match was underway.

The boys had really done a number on her, by no choice of their own. They had been making tags regularly and going for pins, but Casey just wouldn't give up. Every time one of them got her shoulders down, she would either give everything she had to kick out, or somewhere wiggle her way out of their grip. The boys admittedly weren't giving their all; how could they? She was supposed to be joining their ranks, they couldn't exactly rough her up and make her look weak.

Roman was slowly but surely shifting from impressed to annoyed. He had tried to give her an easy out but she chose to make it harder on herself. It seemed they had underestimated both her abilities and her determination. Despite the deteriorating mood of his team member, Seth was having fun with the situation, legitimately enjoying the girl's spunk. It didn't matter much to him how long the match went.

Deans patience was wearing thin.

He was none too pleased with the situation his group, his family, was being forced into and the fact that she was putting up such a fuss was not helping his mood. He didn't understand why Roman wouldn't just let him hit her with Dirty Deeds so they could get on with their lives. Dean was starting to suspect his teammates were purposely not tagging him in, sensing Dean's growing impatience. "Come on, tag me in!" He yelled at Seth as Casey and The Architect took a moment to toy with each other in the middle of the ring.

It was obvious that Casey was getting tired. Her breathing was becoming laboured and she was spending more time dodging the boys' advances than matching them. They would force their take-down on her soon enough, but she didn't want to go out the way they wanted her to. If she was going to lose, she wanted to choose her demise.

Mustering up all her strength, she pushed Seth into The Shield's corner, holding him there after the impact. "Triple Power bomb me" She said quietly and simply, quickly moving to leave the three in their corner, Rollins reached out and grabbed her wrist before she got too far, confused by her words.

"What?" He asked hurriedly, making sure to make it look like they were in a power struggle while they discussed.

"Tag Roman, Triple power bomb me and I'll let him pin me." Casey broke violently from his grip, leaving the three men still slightly confused, but moving to follow her directions.

Casey laid face up on the canvas as The Shield's music played over the mixed cheers and boos of the crowd. Her chest was rising and falling quickly and her back didn't feel very nice. Though she had known it was coming and had time to prepare for it, being Triple Power Bombed never really went well for anyone. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her now-clients celebrating their win. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, getting her emotions under control.

It was over, her first title reign ended before it had really begun and the last thing she wanted to do was watch as Cody took the belt from the referee and rubbed it in her face. She closed her eyes as Cody's music hit, wishing as hard as she could that this was all a bad dream.

Suddenly, she was lifted to her feet. "On your feet, Princess. Big girls don't cry." Roman said as she was brought back to reality. He patted her back in an attempt to comfort her. "You fought the good fight." His annoyance dissipating now that the math was over, he was genuinely impressed with how she had handled the situation.

Casey shot him a sad smile and moved past him to leave the arena as quickly as she could, not intending on stopping until she reached home.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Her front door slamming behind her, Casey strode towards her living room, intending to shut herself out from the world for a couple of days before having to face the mess that was waiting for her back at work. The grown-up thing to do would have been to face her problems and try to make the best of a bad situation. But right now, she didn't feel like being a grown up. She felt like pouting and hiding away. Besides, she had this house all to herself, while her roommate was away and she barely used it. 90% of her time was spent on the road, just like any other wrestler.

Planting herself on the couch, she realized she had left her phone in the car, along with all of her bags. Vince would be calling her, no doubt; leaving in the middle of a tour was not a good career move. She just needed some time to herself. Given the circumstances, Vince could deal with her absence for a day or two.

Casey buried her face in a couch cushion, willing herself not to cry. They had taken her title from her; they had humiliated her in front of the whole WWE universe. She was upset, but not upset enough to let herself cry like a little girl.

The sunlight shining in her eyes was beginning to piss her off. Why did she have curtains if they didn't block out the light? In a vain attempt to get the sun to 'bugger off', she threw the couch cushion she had fallen asleep on in the direction of the offending light. Wiping the sleep out of her eyes, she headed to the kitchen to make herself a coffee.

She putted around the kitchen, the impending doom of having to check the no doubt dozens of messages on her phone, currently sitting in her car out front, along with with rest of her on-the-road belongings, which, given the amount of time she spent touring, was most of what she owned. If she was more important, she would have tried for a personal bus in her contract, but those were reserved for the top of the top wrestlers, not managers.

After a shower taken mostly out of procrastination and an unnecessarily and uncharacteristically long amount of time spent picking out her outfit for the day, Casey finally hauled her bags into the house, not taking them much further than the front room; There was really no use in unpacking. She was really starting to feel guilty about leaving the tour and would most likely leave by the end of the day.

"What the hell?!" Casey stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing a mop of dishwater blonde hair lounging on her couch. Her mouth fell agape as Dean turned around to smirk at her.

"Nice of you to join us, Princess." He teased, extending his arm over the back of the couch as he flicked through the channels on the television she rarely used. The only reason she bought it was because the room looked empty without it.

"Ambrose, what are you doing in my house?" Casey demanded, taking a step into the living room. With this step, Roman, standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, came into view. "Really? You too?"

"Casey, you have like no food here." Seth reported from the kitchen. "How do you live like this? Is that why you're so skinny? You just don't eat?"

"Nuh uh. This is not a SHIELD party." She shook her head and rushed over to Roman, circling behind him, intending on pushing him in the direction of the door. "I came here to get away from you boys; it was not an invitation to come hang out." Both her hands on his back, Casey tried to push Roman, but made absolutely no progress. "How did you even get in here? I was sure I locked all the door, there's no way you got in." She managed to get Roman to move a few inches before giving up. "God Damnit, you're solid." She stomped off in a huff.

Entering the kitchen, she found Seth rooting around in the freezer. "Barrett gave us a key. You let him stay here a couple of months ago and you never got your key back. Wasn't too hard to get him to hand it over." The two-toned man said absentmindedly, like it wasn't a big deal that they had pretty much broken into her house. "You know, you should really be more careful. Who knows who could have gotten in here."

Casey pulled him out of the freezer and shut it. "I have a security system, for your information. I didn't expect anybody to be trying to get in. Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be off planning your next 'act of justice'?"

"Kind of hard to do that when we're missing a member." Roman had to come to join them in the kitchen, leaning against the counter just behind Casey.

"No. Absolutely not." She held up a finger and turned to face the samoan. "I want no part in your bully brigade. You guys are SHIELD, I'm just your manager. End of story."

"Look lady," Dean's sudden appearance and apparent annoyance surprised all three of them. "Either you're one of us, or you get is no in between, and since the big boss' orders are for you to stick with us, it looks like you're part of the SHIELD now." The relaxed atmosphere Seth had been exuding was now gone. It was becoming clear to Casey that if there was one thing Dean Ambrose was serious about, it was the SHIELD. "Now get your shit, we gotta get moving." He moved towards the front door but paused before leaving the room. "Oh and do me a favor and don't pull this running away bullshit again? I'll admit, after your little show last night, I'm not exactly displeased to have you on our side, but I will NOT be chasing your ass down again.." With that, he turned to exit the kitchen, leaving Casey to gape at him. Not only was she surprised that he had spoken to her like that, but she was surprised he was so quick to accept her as part of their group.

"My uh…" She stumbled. "My things are in the front room." She moved past Roman to get her bags.

"I'll help you carry them." The samoan rumbled, following closely behind her.


End file.
